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Carol Burnett Show Collector's Edition: Jim Nabors / Ken Berry & Carl Reiner

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This VHS volume of "The Carol Burnett Show: The Collector's Edition" (released in 2000 by Columbia House) includes the opening show from the 10th season of Carol's long-running, hour-long variety series, as well as one eighth-season episode.

"The Carol Burnett Show" was a CBS mainstay for 11 full seasons, with 278 episodes airing from September 1967 through March 1978.

The first episode on this video cassette is Show #231 of the series and features guest star Jim Nabors. This episode, originally seen on CBS-TV on September 25, 1976, was the premiere program of Carol Burnett's tenth season on the air. Jim Nabors, in fact, made a habit of appearing on Carol's very first episode each and every year. Jim never missed a season-opening show. He went 11-for-11 in that department.

The highlight of this 1976 show (IMO) is a very, very funny installment of the recurring series of sketches known as "The Family" -- which would eventually spin-off into a TV series all its own, "Mama's Family", which ran for 6 years and 130 total episodes from 1983 to 1990.

In this "Family" skit, the gang decides to sit down to a nice, friendly, relaxing game of "Monopoly". Now, anyone who has ever seen "Mama" (Vicki Lawrence) and "Eunice" (Carol Burnett) and "Ed" (Harvey Korman) in any of these hysterical "Family" sketches KNOWS that the terms "nice" and "friendly" and "relaxing" aren't part of these characters' vocabulary. An argument always results from even the most mundane of everyday activities. And this "Monopoly" game is no exception. (Although not included on this tape, there's another episode of Carol's series which has the "Family" playing a game of "Sorry" -- with that game session also resulting in hysterical tirades from each family member at the game table. And then there's the hilarious "Charades" game in yet another episode of "The Carol Burnett Show". That one's a howl as well. Many "LOL" moments.)

In addition to the side-splitting "Family" portion of this '76 episode, there is also a very good spoof on the TV soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" (which was, itself, a satire). Carol's impersonation of "Mary Hartman" star Louise Lasser is uncannily good! She's a riot here.

The second episode on this "Collector's Edition" video is show number 195 of "The Carol Burnett Show", with guest stars Carl Reiner and Ken Berry. (Like Jim Nabors, Berry was another often-seen face on the Burnett series. Ken would go on to land a regular role in the "Mama's Family" series as well.)

The Reiner/Berry program was first aired on network TV on December 14, 1974. It was the 12th episode of Season #8 of the Burnett series.

A high spot in this episode is a clever movie parody dubbed "Disaster '75", which pokes fun at the disaster film "Airport 1975" (which had premiered in movies theaters around the United States just a couple of months earlier, on October 18, 1974).

In the "Disaster" spoof, Carol and Harvey (Korman) play "Norma Desmond" and "Max" (from the 1950 movie "Sunset Boulevard"). Carol's "Norma" will leave you in stitches. Miss Burnett can "take off" on a person with the best of 'em.

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So, if you're in the mood for some good-natured laughs with one of the funniest "funny ladies" (and assorted humorous cohorts) of all time, then pop in these two episodes of "The Carol Burnett Show", courtesy of Columbia House's Collector's Edition series of videos.